America's 250th Birthday & The American Freedom Train (at the L.A County Fairgrounds)

Fifty years ago, our nation was celebrating it's Bicentennial birthday.  At that same time, the American Freedom train was traveling the country as a part of the Bicentennial celebration.

Here are some images of the American Freedom Train, when it made a stop at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds.  These photos happen to be from the Ralph and Florence collection.  They were all hand-labeled, and stated specifically that the train was, "In the west parking lot of the L.A. County Fairgrounds, Pomona."  These were dated, "December 1975."  Many of America's Bicentennial celebrations began in 1975, in anticipation of the upcoming bicentennial.  This also included Disneyland and Walt Disney World's official celebrations, which began in June of 1975.

Note how each of the train's cars had large windows, for viewing some of the exhibits.

Here's Florence waiting in line to enter the train.  According to what was written on the slide's mounting, they waited for two and a half hours!

This is Ralph and Florence's son, Alfred.  The vehicle in the window next to him has the NASA logo on it.  It appears to be a lunar rover/moon buggy.  According to Wikipedia, vehicles like this were used in the last three missions of the United States' Apollo program (15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972.  Since all three of the actual vehicles used were left behind on the moon (following each mission), this one must have been one of the "test" vehicles or "trainer" vehicles, which are still around today, and on display in various museums.

The sign posted for this next item reads, "Friendship No. 1 (1849) - Hand pumped fire engines such as this beautifully restored vehicle were pulled to a fire by long lines of running men.  The early machines have long since been replaced by sophisticated fire equipment, yet it is still the men, the firefighters of America, on who's courage and sacrifice we depend for protection of life and property."

Unfortunately, those are the only photos they took during their visit to the Freedom Train.  But among Ralph's and Florence's set of slides that I acquired, were these two shots of a display created by Ralph.  This first one was dated December 24, 1975, and labeled, "Bicentennial Christmas display - created and painted by Ralph."

The date on this slide was January 1976, and Ralph's hand-written description was, "Comedy Paul Revere scene for Bicentennial."

Here's a random photo from June of 1975.  I'm including it here, because it sort of fits in with the Freedom Train exhibits, except that Ralph took this one at a Pasadena City College "camera show."  The image shows an Edison Home Kinetoscope and it's companion phonograph, which were used for early sound movies and were both patented in 1897.  The sign has a couple of misspellings.  First, is the actual name of the item.  The other is the spelling of the word, "Attempt."  A black celluloid cylinder, which predated flat disc records, can be seen on the phonograph.  The (phonograph's) sign also states, "For use in connection with the Edison Kinetoscope only."

Here's a vintage image from the internet, showing a row of Edison's Kinetoscopes.

To finish out this post, I'm including some Bicentennial items from my childhood.

These commemorative postage stamps and special "cover" envelope were officially postmarked on July 4, 1976.  My dad gave a set of these to both my brother and me.  The stamps are a representation of the 1817 painting by John Trumbull, "Declaration of Independence."

The flap on the reverse side included these logos.

A card containing a facsimile of all the signatures on the Declaration of Independence came with the envelope.

Both items came in this special "leatherette" folder.

Production of the two-dollar bill had been discontinued in 1966, but was resumed 10 years later and reissued on April 13, 1976 (Thomas Jefferson's birthday).  My great-grandmother went to her local post office in Long Beach, CA, and had a two-dollar bill stamped and postmarked for both my brother and me.  According to Wikipedia, you could only do this on the first day of issue for the bill, so the postmark on these reads, "APR 13 1976."

This block of stamps shows all three from this particular commemorative set.

The reverse side of the two-dollar bill was redesigned for it's 1976 reissue.  The reverse previously had a picture of Jefferson's Virginian home, "Monticello."  The new design (below) featured an engraved version of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence" painting.

I don't remember where I got this Bicentennial decal, but I've had it since childhood and never "stuck" it on anything.

I've also had this box of note cards since 1976.

They were manufactured by Hallmark.

There are still two unused note cards inside.

I posted both of these bicentennial-themed puzzles in 2020, in a post about "Vintage Disney Jigsaw Puzzles."  This first one is a Whitman "Frame-Tray Puzzle" for children, featuring only 12 pieces.

And this larger boxed version contains almost 500 pieces, and was manufactured by Springbok, a division of Hallmark Cards Inc.

In case anyone is interested, back in July of 2015, I posted several other Bicentennial items from my childhood, including a couple commemorative Pepsi cans, a pressed penny, and the Sunday comics section from the July 4, 1976 edition of The Los Angeles Times.

Happy 250th birthday, America!

****UPDATE****

I just found another issue of My Weekly Reader from elementary school (dated September 17, 1975).  I previously posted an issue from 1971, which had a cover story about the opening of Walt Disney World.  Interestingly enough, this issue did not have any more info about "America On Parade" at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, other than the very brief description below the cover photo.  There is a note at the bottom, stating, "See the Teacher's Edition of this issue for a special New Awareness Enrichment Section."  I think the Teacher's Edition had more info, because I do remember after these monthly papers were passed out to us, the teacher would review them with the class.

 Page 2:

Page 3:

Page 4:

This issue also contained a special "insert," for ordering books and posters through "Xerox Education Publications."

Donald Duck's 90th Birthday (Toys, Books, Records & More) - Mega Post!

Donald Duck is celebrating his 90th birthday this month.  Gee, it seems like only yesterday, he was turning 50!

That year was 1984, and Disneyland was hosting a big "50th" birthday celebration for him.

This Disneyland entertainment guide for the week of June 18, 1984, lists a special birthday parade, and two different birthday shows.  One of the shows was presented at Carnation Gardens, and the other took place on the steps of the Main Street train station.

The guide included these two advertisements.  The Olympic Games were being held in Los Angeles that summer, and Disney was selling a special "Olympic Spirit Passport," which came with a solid bronze medal.

Magic Journey's was premiering at Disneyland that summer, after debuting at EPCOT Center, two years earlier.  The 3-D film was shown at Disneyland, outdoors at the Space Mountain Stage, and only at night.

The $1.50 price for Donald's "50th birthday party" (listed above in the upper left corner), included this button, which was not sold anywhere else in the park.

A specially designed waxed paper cup was used throughout the park, at all of the quick-service food locations.

I picked up this 1984 Walt Disney World guide, at Disneyland's Carefree Corner (on Main Street).  The cover featured Donald wearing a party hat.

A similar image was used for the Summer 1984 issue of Disney News Magazine:

The cover of the Summer 1984 issue of Vacationland Magazine was also celebrating Donald's milestone birthday, with artwork by noted Disney artist, Charles Boyer.

Both magazines contained the same two articles, dedicated to Donald's birthday.

This first article discusses the upcoming plans for Donald's birthday, including a 15-city tour, getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a television special, and parades and shows at the parks.

Below is an artist's conception of Donald's birthday parade at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

This second article is a review of Donald's history in films, television and comic books.

The Sunday "Calendar" section of the Los Angeles Times, featured several Disneyland ads, promoting the birthday celebration at the park.  The second and third ads also mention the new 3-D film, Magic Journeys and the all-new Alice In Wonderland attraction, which had just reopened in April of that year.

This first ad is dated May 27, 1984:

This one is dated June 10, 1984:

And this one is dated June 17, 1984:

I've said this before, and I will say it again.....I have the best family in the world!  They have always been on the lookout for newspaper ads, articles, collectibles, and other items that they knew I would be interested in.  Back in 1984, my brother pulled this page out of his July 19th issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, and gave it to me.  I have held onto it all these years.

When I first started writing this post, I suddenly realized that I had a LOT of Donald Duck items from my childhood.  I am going to attempt to post as many of those items that I can locate, as well as a "newer" item or two that I purchased later, as an adult.  Here we go......

We'll start with a couple of children's records.  This first one was one of my absolute favorites.  It features the song from the 1962 Donald Duck "short," The Litterbug.

This next one featured two different stories, "Donald's Fire House" and "Donald's Temper."

I posted this Little Golden Book in it's entirety, back in December of 2021.  For anyone who's interested in reading the story of "Donald Duck and Santa Claus," you can click here.

I purchased this 1940 "Better Little Book" in a local "used book" shop, back in the 1980s.

The spine of the book:

The back cover:

My aunt gave me this 1967 Whitman "Big Little Book," about 15 years ago.

The book's spine:

The back cover, with a summary of the story:

I purchased this 1975 "Big Little Book" at a Sav-On Drug Store, the same year it was published.

The spine:

The back cover (I also bought that "Mickey Mouse - Mystery In Disneyland" book, at the same time!):

My mom bought this "educational" card game for me at our local Lucky grocery store, back in the 1970s.

 It only cost .29 cents!

These were the images on the cards.  This is basically the game of "concentration," where players turn over two cards per turn, and try to find matching pairs.

 

 The instructions:

This "mini" card game was a "stocking stuffer," along with a Pinocchio mini card game, which I received that same Christmas.

 The cards:

The instructions:

My mom gave me this alarm clock one year, for Christmas. The blue dots next to the numbers glow in the dark, as well as the spots on the hour and minute hands.

Unfortunately, I didn't save the box that the clock came in, but my mom saved the card with the instructions and product "guarantee."

 

This Donald Duck "squeaky" toy is one of the oldest surviving toys that my brother and I still have.  We're talking "baby" toys, here.  I'm not sure if this was actually my brother's, or mine.  I'm guessing that it was originally his, and then I "inherited" it.

The "squeaker" is on the top of Donald's hat, and it still works!

This is another one of our older toys.  It's a "pull toy."  When you pull the string, Donald waddles from side to side as he pulls the wagon with his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie.  Unfortunately, one of the nephew's heads broke off many years ago.

Here is another toy that originally had a pull string of sorts.  The string was tied to a plastic loop and threaded through the hole in Donald's hat.  When you pulled the string, it wound up a mechanism under the boat (using rubber bands).  When you let go, the boat was propelled forward as the string retracted back inside.  For some reason, I became really curious about the mechanism, and took it apart, effectively breaking it.  That wasn't normal behavior for me.  I usually took very good care of my toys!

This yo-yo was another Christmas "stocking stuffer."  That same year, my brother received a red "Goofy" yo-yo in his stocking.

This Pez dispenser was also a "stocking stuffer."  I remember my mom would often buy Pez candy and dispensers, to put in our Christmas stockings.  I included a photo of my Pinocchio Pez dispenser, in my "Pinocchio" post from last year.

Rubber bendable figures like this, were very popular at one time.  They have wires inside, which allow you to pose them in various positions.  This miniature Donald belonged to my brother and I had a miniature "Tom" figure, from the "Tom & Jerry" cartoons.  Between the two of us, we also had large and miniature versions of Gumby and his pal Pokey, and large versions of Dudley Do-Right, Snidely Whiplash, and Stan Laurel (from the 1960s Laurel & Hardy cartoon series).

This "Disneyland Dipsy Doodles" puzzle also belonged to my brother.  I had one that featured Mickey Mouse, juggling balls.  I will try to get that one posted in the future.  They don't have a date printed on them, but they go far enough back in my childhood, that I can't remember if they actually came from Disneyland or not.  I want to say that they came from our local Lucky grocery store's toy aisle, but I'm not positive about that.

The instructions on the back:

Here are a few items, which definitely came from childhood visits to Disneyland.

First, this Donald Duck Flip Book is just one of several versions which were sold at the park.  A "flip book" contains images of a character or an object, on each of it's pages.  Each image is drawn slightly different than the previous one, so that when the pages are "flipped" through rapidly, it appears that the character or object is animated.  Some of the earliest flip books sold at the park, had "Designed by the Art Corner at Disneyland" on the cover.  Once the Art Corner exhibit closed, they removed that line from the souvenir flip books.

I remember my parents letting my brother and I each pick out a hat, during one of our early Disneyland visits.  My brother picked out the traditional "Mouse Ears," and I chose this Donald Duck hat, with the bill that "squeaks" when you squeeze it.

 

Pin-back buttons used to be a very popular park souvenir.  Over the years, buttons have been available representing a variety of characters, attractions, and park events.  This style button was available in the 1970s and 1980s, with versions featuring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Winnie The Pooh.
 

In the 1980s, these character buttons were redesigned and given a new look.

I've posted these three Donald Duck puzzles in the past, along with some other Disney-related puzzles.  Those other puzzles can be seen by clicking here.

This plastic bottle contained hand and body lotion.  It came as a "set," with a Mickey Mouse-shaped shampoo bottle.

The shampoo and lotion were both manufactured by DEP^®.  I didn't get a photo of the other side of the label, but it has "Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom Wishes You A Very Happy Growing Up!" printed on it.

One of the many things that I collected as a child, were comic books.  I have quite a few "Donald Duck" comics, but I am only including a few of them.  These are actually older examples and were not purchased "new."  We had two "used" book stores in my hometown, and they both carried used comic books.  They were a great source for acquiring older issues.

Issue #94 from May of 1964:

  Issue #111 from January of 1967:

This comic introduced the character, Moby Duck, which eventually led to Moby Duck having his own comic book series.

Issue #112 from March of 1967:

Issue #  from November of 1971:

My brother and I had a small number of "Disneykins," which our mom let us send away for through a Royal Gelatin mail-in offer.  Among our collection was, Donald, Dewey, and Daisy.  (To give an idea of the size of these figures, Donald is only 1.5 inches tall.)

This large plastic figure of Donald was sold in toy sections of supermarkets and department stores.  It was manufactured by "Marx," the same company that made Disneykins and Snap-eze figures.  I have a few more of these figures, including a red Mickey, a red Pluto, and a blue Dopey.  (This Donald figure is much bigger than a Disneykin, measuring 5.5 inches tall.)

A few years ago, my aunt gave me a small collection of vintage plastic charms, which included Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Grumpy, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Practical Pig.  I included the Pinocchio charm in my "Pinocchio" post, from March of 2023.

 

And now, just a few "newer" items.

 

During Disneyland's celebration of Donald's 50th, I purchased this collector's plate, which was available in the Disneyana Shop on Main Street.

 

 

Information on back of plate:

 

I displayed the plate for a while, but it has now been stored in it's original box for decades.

 

 

The price tag is still attached to the box.

And the original receipt has been kept inside the box.  The date printed on it shows that I purchased the plate on June 12, 1984.

 

Another souvenir I purchased that summer, was this T-Shirt.  I bought it in the Tinker Bell Toy Shop (in Fantasyland), and it remained folded up and sealed inside it's original plastic bag, for years.

For some unexplainable reason, I actually sold the shirt about 20 years ago.  After expressing some regret over getting rid of it, a good friend of mine found one that was still sealed in the bag, and gave it to me as a birthday present.  Will I ever tear the plastic bag open, and take it out?  Probably not!  I found these images on ebay, to show the shirt in it's entirety.

And finally, we have this birthday-themed sticker book from 1984, which I purchased in the Storybook Store (presented by Western Publishing Company).  The Storybook Store was located just behind the original Disneyana Shop, on the western side of Main Street.

 

The back cover:

Here are just two of the pages from inside:

 

 

 

 

I will end this post with some videos, and a Gorillas Don't Blog link.

 

This is "The Litterbug Song," from that aforementioned Donald Duck short, "The Litterbug":

 

Here are two different videos of  Donald's 50th Birthday Parade, at Disneyland.  The theme song was pretty catchy!

  

And here is a link to a 2021 Gorilla's Don't Blog post, featuring photos of the birthday parade, taken by Lou Perry (of "Lou and Sue" fame), and shared by his daughter Sue, and Major Pepperidge:  Donald Duck's 50th Birthday Parade

Happy 90th Birthday, Donald!!!

 

*****POST UPDATE*****

After finishing this post, I remembered that I also have some Donald-related souvenirs from Tokyo Disneyland!

This button is an older souvenir, and is similar in style to the character buttons that were sold at the U.S. Disney parks.

I posted this Tokyo Disney Resort item previously, back in July of 2009.  It's a box that originally contained a candy bar.  There were two other versions, with the faces of Mickey (chocolate), and Minnie (strawberry flavored white chocolate).  The Donald version was white chocolate, with chocolate cookie crumbs.

This is a food wrapper from Tokyo DisneySea, from the 2000s.  It originally contained an "Ukiwa" bun.  It has two layers.  The back yellow portion is made of a waxy type of paper, and the front portion is clear plastic with Donald printed on it.

I looked online, and found this image on the official Tokyo Disney Resort site.  Apparently, they have changed the design on the wrapper.  "Ukiwa" translates to "life saver," so they designed the sleeves to look like Donald is floating on top of (older wrapper, above), or inside of (below) a life preserver.  The soft bun is about the size of a bagel, and is filled with shrimp and some type of sauce.  It was very tasty.  This was the only variety they were selling during all of my visits to Tokyo DisneySea, but I see that they now make other versions.

The Ukiwa Bun is a popular enough food item, that they made replicas of the bun and the wrapper, as magnets.  The Tokyo Disney parks sell replicas of other popular food items, in magnet form.  Those items include, a Mickey-shaped waffle, a Mickey-shaped ice cream sandwich, a cup of coffee with a Mickey-shaped stir stick, a churro, and a box of popcorn.

 

When Tokyo DisneySea opened in 2001, they sold a wide variety of merchandise with various characters representing each of the park's "ports" ("lands").  Donald was used for the "Mysterious Island" section, and this logo appeared on magnets, pens, erasers, tablets, collector's pins, etc.

Magnet:

 Tablet:

I purchased this "mini" magnet set at The Disney Store, in Tokyo Disney's "Ikspiari."  That's Tokyo's version of "Downtown Disney."  They had other sets featuring Mickey's "shorts and glove," and Minnie's "bow and shoe."

This set of magnets came from Tokyo Disneyland, circa 2010.

I found this magnet in Tokyo Disneyland's Adventureland Bazaar.  They had similar versions of Mickey and Stitch, on tribal "shields."  Or maybe they are supposed to be masks?

And just to give some equal time to Paris, here's an Adventureland magnet from Euro Disneyland, featuring Donald as a pirate.

Euro Disneyland's name was changed to Disneyland Paris, just two and a half years after the park opened.  This Disneyland Paris candy tin features Donald on the lid, and originally contained "Bonbons Arome Citron" (lemon flavored).